Menu

No Coffee for you Gregg

Did I know much about Gregg before the Cubs signed him? Not really. I knew he looked like a goon. I knew he pitched for the Marlins. I knew that he was coming in to replace a Cubs favorite. I knew he’d be challenging Marmol for the closer job. I knew he was the wrong choice. I thought I knew Lou knew what he was doing.

And now here we are. 29 opportunities and six blown saves later, the goon who is not Wood nor Marmol is blowing are shot at ’09. Killed me to wake up and see that the Cards beat the Dodgers last night. Unbelievable. Pujols is having an unreal year, the Cards are soaring and here we are, doing our best to simply keep up. We do pretty well, he hand it over to our closer in the toughest sitch a closer can be in…the one run lead.

Goon gets to one strike away. Boom. Blown save. Boom. 3 run walkoff for the Padres. The same Padres who hurt us by not beating the Cards in their previous series have shown up once again to hurt us by beating us directly. The same Padres franchise that crushed us in ’84. I hate the Padres. Especially right now. More so though, I hate Gregg.

Lou, enough already. Borrow Gregg’s goon goggles if you have to. Please see that he is not the guy for the ninth. It’s amazing that fans have been saying it all year yet here we are, in August, and you’ve still got that goon blowing saves. I know, I know. After last night you FINALLY said maybe you’ll make a switch as to how you handle the late innings. That would be great and about time. You finally made some changes in the lineup and we did marginally better. Make the change to Marmol, sit Gregg altogether if you have to and move Guzman to the eighth. At least if you decide to throw Gregg in the seventh we have a shot at making up the runs he gives up. I swear, nothing upsets me more than seeing L – Gregg in the pitching results. L – Gregg? So wait….we were up and that goon blew it AGAIN!?! Drives me nuts.

The Cardinals are no joke this year. The Cubs aren’t a joke, but we’re grasping at straws here. Our line up can’t hit when it matters. Our starting pitchers can’t stay healthy. Our closer can’t close. And our fans can’t hold on to their beer. Enough already.

I feel like I need to put this clip up for Gregg. No coffee for you Gregg. Coffee’s for closers.

I know how you fell Prose. For the most part, I try not to dump on individual players because baseball is a team sport, but Kevin Gregg has ruined too many games to just write it off. Six blow saves: Milwaukee, Atlanta, Detroit, two against Florida and now San Diego. I can think back to every single one of those games, and remember that sickening feeling of staring at the TV or listening to the radio in utter disbelief.
Lou has got to do something about the bullpen. I’d like to see Marmol take over, but you never know if he’ll have his control or not. The Cardinals keep winning which puts even more pressure on us. They’ve got a great team with Pujols, DeRosa and Holliday, which is scary. I’m not giving up yet. We have what it takes to catch the Cards. We just need to get started right away. Go Cubs.

Writing for:

MLB.COMVINE LINE MAGAZINE - The official publication of the Chicago CubsBASEBALL DIGESTCONNECTICUT TIGERS - Class A Short Season Minor League Affiliate of the Detroit Tigers
Writing Samples available HERE